


Disastrous Miscommunication and Childhood Trauma

by sinthetic



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Adora (She-Ra) has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Adora Has Issues (She-Ra), Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Orphanage, Angst, Boarding School, Catra Has Issues (She-Ra), Catra has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (She-Ra), F/F, Lesbian Adora (She-Ra), Lesbian Catra (She-Ra), Lesbian Disaster Adora (She-Ra), Lesbian Disaster Catra (She-Ra), PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Quote: Hey Adora (She-Ra), Slow Burn, Tags to be added, Trauma, dw the school is prob lightly mentioned, theres no army, theres no war, tw for childhood trauma, world building still the same
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:02:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26081617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinthetic/pseuds/sinthetic
Summary: In a distant, starless universe, on the sole planet, there lived: two Disaster Gays, a complicated abusive Mother Weaver, a brightly dressed energetic princess, a stressed dad friend, and about 2 million other people.OrAdora leaves both her childhood home and prison, The Horde Orphanage and The Fright Zone Boarding School (FZBS). Her former ex ‘best friend’, Catra, is toxic but Adora is determined not to give up on her. Angst ensues.Likely will continue past the canon storyline. The world building of Etheria remains the same. TW for: pstd, childhood trauma and abuse, violence, strong language
Relationships: Adora & Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra (She-Ra)
Kudos: 8





	Disastrous Miscommunication and Childhood Trauma

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I’m finishing this chapter at 4:30am so needless to say I’m not beta reading this so sry for any fuck ups.   
> Quick info: this starts after Adora finds out she is a princess and gets her gemstone ( the one that’s on her sword ). In this au Shadow Weaver is an orphanage owner known to the children as Mother Weaver. She’s still a pos. Hordack doesn’t run the FZBS, Horde Prime does. He’s still a pos with creepy clones but less controlling and more a “Jeff bezos if he was a principle at a boarding school that teaches fighting, lies, and the sweet sweet inescapable racism against the other cultures and kingdoms” kind of guy. All characters still look the same unless otherwise specified. Also the kingdom is still called The Fright Zone but since there’s no war or army its actually like a kingdom. Most, if not all, the citizens have been through the FZBS and are subsequently all manipulated and brainwashed. They’re the boomers of etheria. Booo.

“Hey Adora.” The voice was easily recognizable, the low toned honey coated words just icing on the already obvious identity. 

Adora sighed as the familiar feelings of annoyance and an unidentifiable, warm and fuzzy made themselves known. The unidentifiable feelings bothered her the most. She didn’t experience it with anyone else so it didn’t bother her enough to talk to her teammates and friends about it. Instead, she channeled it into frustration towards the one who had spoken.

“Aww, are you not going to respond to me? Is the great Adora that above all of us  _ peasants  _ now?” The voice grew closer to Adora, She could tell that the other had come down from wherever they were hiding.

“No, not that you’d know,” Adora responded tensely, “I just don’t have the patience for your games today.” She turned to face the figure, who was still in the shadows. Adora only knew she was there because she was predictable that way. “What is it today, Catra? Are you here for my stone again? Or is it something here that you want?”

Catra emerged from the shadows, her eyes becoming visible first, then followed by her hands which were outstretched towards Adora. “Why can’t it be both?” She continued to approach the blonde girl, eyes tracing her figure. In truth, Catra didn’t know why she was here. Something in her just told her she needed to see Adora, even though they were supposed to be enemies. They were enemies.

Adora rolled her eyes. Of course Catra wasn’t going to give her a straight answer. The woods around them softly howled as the night time wind blew through the trees and plants. Distantly, a creature howled. Leaves and grass softly crunched underneath her feet as she turned her back to Catra and began walking away from her. “You already know that I’m not going to let you take my gem. I can’t. Nor have I found anything that would be of interest or value to you, here. You came here for nothing.” 

The fur on Catra’s body bristled from the anger and pain now coursing through her veins. “Don’t walk away from me! Are you really going to throw away your entire life for those  _ strangers _ ? You belong at home, with our family! It’s not too late to come  _ home _ , Adora. I know mother still loves you, and she’ll be so proud of you getting a stone for us she’ll forget to be mad that you left!” Catra’s voice was loud and demanding. She watched Adora stop in her tracks while she yelled at her. Very quickly, she realized Adora’s shoulders were shaking, her back and arms following suit. Rage reared its familiar head inside of Catra. “Are you laughing at me? You really do think you’re better than us, don’t you,” Catra paused for an answer but when she didn’t immediately get a response she demanded again. “Don’t you, Adora?!”

“Shut up.” The words felt like daggers, laced with so much pain and anger.

“What did you just say?” Catra’s voice, in turn, was just as icy, if not more so. 

“You heard me, Catra.” Adora hunched forward, as if she were hugging herself. “I said, shut up. Stop talking. I don’t want to hear another fucking word.”

Catra was stunned. She had never heard Adora curse. Mother would never allow it. Of course, Catra had cursed on a few occasions back home, but it wasn’t something the golden child would do. “How dare you, Adora. You don’t—“

Adora cut her off, while whirling around to face Catra. “No, Catra. How dare  _ you _ ?” There were tears running down her face, but her voice was strong, not a crack to be heard. Despite the crying being silent, it spoke volumes about the turmoil Adora had within her. “Weaver is  _ not _ my mother. She’s not your mother either. She’s a horrible, miserable, manipulative old woman who took advantage of young and vulnerable orphaned children! She used fear and violence to keep us in check, while training out all forms of individuality. We were made into carbon copies of each other, made to think that anyone would wasn’t part of our town and fake fucking family were the enemies. But they’re not. There is so much freedom out here. I can’t go back, Catra. I can’t handle being in fear, all day, every day. I’m tired. I’m so tired.” 

Adora’s voice had quieted towards the end, the weight of her emotions exhausting her words. Catra had been watching Adora with wide eyes, shocked into silence by her former best friend’s outburst. Her ears were flat and pointed behind her, her tail softly whooshing as it whipped behind her. In some far, repressed area of her brain, Catra knew Adora’s words rang true. But years of fear and manipulation, exasperated by Mother Weaver taking her frustrations towards Adora, clouded her mind. 

“She took us off the streets! Gave us food and clothes and a home! It wasn’t that bad, Adora. Not when we had each other.” Catra’s voice cracked towards the end. But when she spoke again, it had regained an icy edge. “But then you left and fucked everything up. You found that stupid gem and those stupid outsiders and you left. Do you even understand how hard it’s been without you? Without you around, Mother has been worse. She’s always upset and she takes it out on me because we were so close. It should be you, getting punished. This is all your fault, Adora. It’s always been your fault. She focused so much energy on you that she didn’t have much left for me, or the rest of us. You were the poison in our home, not me.”

Adora was silent, eyes glazed over and stuck to the long, soft grass beneath her. All the words and thoughts in her head were suddenly gone. Her brain like an empty cave, mysterious bones and skeletons littering the floor, Adora herself curled in a ball in the very back, behind a large rock. It was cold and dark and overwhelmingly lonely. Catra stared at her, waiting for a response. Usually she’d get upset, thinking Adora was ignoring her but.. something felt different. Wrong. Had she gone too far? 

Catra shook the thought from her head. If she had gone too far it was too late to take it back. Catra didn’t apologize to anyone. Especially not to her frustrating and confusing traitorous ex best friend. Before she decided to open her mouth again she heard something approaching. Or maybe it was someone. She couldn’t quite tell. Her eyes remained on Adora, her ears tilted towards the direction of the noise, fur standing on end. 

“Adora!!!” 

Catra jumped at the sudden shout, the childish voice making her groan out loud. Of course Adora’s friend was here too. The half baked, glitter girl. Horde, she despised her. Adora didn’t react, eyes unmoving, breathing soft. Catra was stuck in place, staring at the other girl. Almost automatically Catra said her name, soft and familiar. The voice she used to use whenever Adora was upset, when they were kids and everything was still easy and uncomplicated. 

In the cave, Adora heard Catra’s voice echo off the wall. It felt like a blanket of that unidentifiable, warm and fuzzy feeling. Suddenly, the cave didn’t seem so big and overwhelming. Adora’s eyes moved up to Catra’s face and for a moment, it felt like there were no more problems plaguing them. However, it was broken by the sound of Glimmer approaching the two, and Adora’s eyes quickly fell once more.

“Catra,” Glimmer said, voice harsher than what should have come out of the seemingly childish girl. “What are you doing here?” Her hands grew a purple-pink glimmering glow as her eyes shifted to Adora. Immediately she noticed something was wrong. “ _ What did you do to her.” _ Fury coated her words, her voice sounding like it belonged to a soldier rather than a Princess. 

“I didn’t do a thing. Haven’t even touched her. Isn’t that right, Adora,” Catra replied. 

“Just go home Catra. It’s where you think you belong. Mother is never going to trap me again. I am never going back.” Her voice was soft and would have been hard to hear, if not for Catra’s superior hearing. “I’m sorry.”

Catra was silent, looking back and forth between the other two. She snarled from frustration, then turned and jumped her way into a tree, branch by branch. The natural foliage made exceptional coverage. She watched from a nearby tree as Glimmer took Adora’s arm and put it over her shoulders to help her walk. When they were out of sight Catra continued on her way back to the Horde Orphanage, angrily wiping tears from her eyes.


End file.
